SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 13

(By Senators Weeks, Dempsey, Barnes, McKenzie and yoder)

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[Introduced February 20, 2006; referred to the Committee on Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]

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Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia, amending article VI thereof by adding thereto a new section, designated section fifty-seven, relating to providing that no provision of the Constitution of West Virginia may be construed to grant, offer, confer, bestow or imply a right of a woman to an abortion.

Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia, two thirds of the members elected to each house agreeing thereto:
That the question of ratification or rejection of an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia be submitted to the voters of the State at the next general election to be held in the year two thousand six, which proposed amendment is that article VI thereof be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section fifty-seven, to read as follows:
ARTICLE VI. THE LEGISLATURE.
§57. Women do not have a right to an abortion under any provision of this Constitution.

No provision of this Constitution may be construed or interpreted to grant, offer, confer, bestow or imply that a woman has a right to an abortion.
Resolved Further, That in accordance with the provisions of article eleven, chapter three of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, such proposed amendment is hereby numbered "Amendment No. 1" and designated as the "Amendment stating that the West Virginia Constitution Does Not Grant a Right to an Abortion" and the purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: "To clarify that the West Virginia Constitution does not provide a right for an abortion."

NOTE: The purpose of this resolution is to amend the State Constitution to clarify that the Constitution does not provide a right for an abortion.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.